The Next Frontier In Education For Black Women Isn’t Graduate School

Last week Robert F. Smith pledged to pay off the student loans of the Morehouse graduating class of 2019. Like most people, I was moved by the enormity of his gesture.  In one 10-minute speech, Mr. Smith changed the trajectory of generations of families. Then I googled him, and I’m ashamed to admit that my heart sank a little because of what his story says to black women.  

Robert F. Smith is a 50-something-year-old billionaire married to a young, impossibly thin, impossibly beautiful, white American Playboy model.

Now I actually don’t care that he is married to this young, white woman.  This is 2019. People get to marry whomever they want. My heart sank because I know how it feels not to see yourself reflected in spaces of success and wealth and what effect that has on your subconscious.

Subconscious Programming

What happens over and over again in African American culture is that a black man will often begin his career in a relationship with a black woman.  Then, once he becomes successf…